EUGENICS AND FEEBLEMINDEDNESS.

The article presents information on the problem of feeblemindedness, as prosecuted up to the present time, has developed two fairly distinct phases The first phase began in the first half of the 19th century with the demonstration by Seguin and others, that feebleminded children could be materially improved by hygienic and special educative treatment. Custodial care in the large state institutions is the practical outcome, and the physical expression, of the efforts for betterment in this direction. On the physical side, this movement had for its object the care and improvement of the health of the mentally defective children. Obviously, where mental deficiency and economic dependence are so frequently conjoined, the bodily health of these unfortunates can be better controlled in custodial institutions under the supervision of the state government. No one who is acquainted with the work of the better class of state schools will doubt that a long step forward was taken by the development of these institutions. On the mental side, the program of Seguin and his pupils crystallized in the physiological method of instruction, which has become the foundation of all subsequent systems of training of mental defectives.